Murphy Henry
The poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” has always been one of my favorites (we had to memorize the whole thing in seventh grade) and after I finished writing this blog, I thought the first line would make a perfect title.
I know Red has blogged recently about the four beats of E minor versus the six beats of E major in “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” and how satisfying it was to have all the members of that pick-up band making the same choice in the same moment (six beats of E major). Been there, done that (the first time with Red on guitar) and it is truly an awesome feeling. I almost fell off the stage!
Well, at the gig we played Saturday, with a different pick-up band (Red, me, Steve Spence on bass, and Scott Brannon on guitar), I was pleased to see Steve and Scott (both veteran musicians) do the exact opposite. Perhaps this bears a modicum of explanation.
This party, which we’ve played for years, was just down the road about a mile or two at the home of my banjo student Robbie. It was a perfect playing situation: indoors, seated, no P.A. (There was also great food!) Robbie, a senior in high school, is a talented musician who has been taking lessons off and on for maybe a year, less a few months that we lost for some reason or other. He’s recently come back and we’ve been working hard on vamping The Big Four (Banjo in the Hollow, Cripple Creek, Cumberland Gap, and Foggy Mountain Breakdown) so that he could play them at the party.
And play them he did (straight through several times, no vamping) while we backed him up and he did a fine job, despite the fact that he kept stopping and loudly proclaiming, “I can’t do this!” Well, I had my banjo out and every time he’d quit, I’d step in and keep the tune going, and eventually he’d clamber back on board. It is a testimony to his musicianship that he was able to get back in at the right spot every time.
Anyhow, when Robbie started playing “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” Steve and Scott, being well versed in all things Flatt and Scruggs, were playing the six beats of E major, just like the Foggy Mountain Boys. But, you know, it just didn’t sound right probably because I was vamping four beats of E minor and Robbie was playing much slower than Earl. So, bless their hearts, they were listening to what was going on and without me saying a word they eventually changed what they were playing to match what I was doing. And then things sounded right—we were together. Nobody was hammering those six beats of E major just because “Earl done it that way.” When you’re playing music together, as one of today’s modern country songs says, you’ve gotta “roll with it” and make adjustments when necessary because the operative word is together.
Or as Susan Morrison said, when she and Zac were practicing for their nursing home gig and she missed an entrance, leaving them both vamping, “So, I should have listened?” My reply? “That would be a great big yes!”
As we keep telling you, it’s not enough to do your little part, you have to listen, my children, and you will hear…what everybody else is doing and then you’ll be able to make your playing fit in better with theirs. Now back to the poem…
He said to his friends, If the British march
By land or sea from the town tonight
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the old North Church as a signal light.
One if by land, two if by sea
And I on the opposite shore will be
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm
For the country folk to be up and to arm.
Done without Google! I could go on but I will spare you!
